Hello the Internet, and welcome to season two eighty five, Episode three of Like Ice Say production of My Heart Radio. This is the podcast where we take a deep dive into America's share consciousness. It's Wednesday, May third, twenty twenty three. My name is Jack O'Brien aka Hard Feelings, Harder Thighs, my mo that.
I go by.
So I got these plumpers on me, and I'm thrilled to be joined as always by my co host.
Mister Miles Right. Oh man, I'm just here. I'm just Miles Gray. Uh. My lads are plump and I like it. Mark with Cherry taptick all right, anyway, that's that's from LOCARONI. Thus he did a whole song right there.
And even though look jackass plump dies, I also have plump dies. I just don't want that to get lost in the discord, please because I'm also like maybe five seed thick dies.
Okay, thank you? You know what I mean.
I couldn't even participate in the skinny jean era because my legs were an anomaly to I guess all the like the uniform fashion trends that people were doing.
That that's just weird how they don't make the right.
Carl Lagerfeld wasn't feeling your thighs.
He would have told me I was disgusting. I need to get my ship together and drink more diet coke.
Yes, Miles Weird to be joined by a brilliant, talented writer podcast who's written for local publications like The New York Times, The New Yorker.
The New Yorker, You of Books, GQ.
She was the co host of the legendary podcasts Girls and Hoodies, Nike All the writer, creator and host of the legendary podcast Heidi World The Heidi Player Story. Please welcome back to the show The Legends.
Mate, Oh you were my Dolly dollar dollar doll, dollar, doll, doll Dolly.
Oh shit.
I know I'm a Lambert, but Millay pop Yes Drake song for how.
Sad and alone that man is.
He just needs someone to be patient with me.
He's someone to be patient with him. He's got his thick thighs to keep him warm.
Yeah, he needs someone to give him fair repeat.
Also, my ak was a reference to a embroidered jacket Molly just told me about. He's wearing an embroidered jacket that says hard feelings harder dick.
Yep, I think it's album that's going on there.
I think this has to be like a mixtape title or something, because he's done it a couple of times. He just wore another one that had little cute puppies on it cuddling each other and it said hard feelings, harder deck.
Again, sir, sir, you're you're you're losing the plot.
My man, hard feelings, hard dick, soft puppies.
Soft puppies. Also, my man, you're thirty six years old. Yeah, okay, we need to be doing that. But anyway, heystar own.
No hard feelings. Yes, hard feelings. I am mad right now.
Is kind of energy and I'm so horny.
I'm mad and I have a bon It's like what I imagine it's like to be a man.
Yeah, you know, he's basically the male experience right there.
Mad and I have a boner because my favorite basketball team lost.
Yeah, where it's like or it's just like the two modes I'm in are angry or boner. So it depends on what When you catch me, that's what you're going to get.
Hard feelings, harder deck. Those are the two, yeah, the two molds inside you but he's.
He's suggesting that he has them both at the same time.
He's a that's why he's Drake.
Yeah, exactly, he's reached the Christ level consciousness because.
He's like, I'm a sad little bit with a titanium boner.
I also, I think it would be Big Feelings, Bigger Dick, because big feelings is like what what you say to children, and there's like something I feel like there was a part of the right process for the album cover USh Bag Embroidery Hard Feelings, Harder Dick, where he wrote big Feelings, Bigger Dick and someone was like, yeah, but you only talked to like five year olds about having big feelings and he was.
Playing on only five year old?
Doesn't the sun?
Well?
Ye?
Also were you were a Viagra racing jacket after that, which I thought was really funny. I was like, Wow, this is a hilarious album rollout, whatever it is. It's like Viagra jacket implies that the hard Dick is like factory yeah medically.
Yeah.
Hey, look, and maybe that's a new thing he's doing because he's losing so much fucking money gambling online.
I can see him being like, hey, Pfizer, you want me to like fucking do something with you, please.
Look, nothing is cooler than being addicted to gambling and all biagra.
Viagra and thirty six with.
A bazillion dollars and sex with me is super fan like, it's just incredibly fast.
Rescue me me at the club. Okay, okay, okay.
So I think it's the hard dick first, and then the hard feeling. This is what I imagine.
Yeah, like hard dick, harder feelings. That's kind of that that that kind of gets you thinking a little bit.
It's like sex and then you cry.
Yeah, you're lonely.
Not a great proposition either. Look, I think just in general, this this doesn't feel like the most rapper thing I've seen to that was cool about about it.
But also here's why, here's why Trianna and asap Rocky looks so happy and at.
The Metropolitan Gallivant.
They had so much fun at the Metropolitan Gallivant, and he just looks so happy to be with her. You know, it makes him and he's like so much hotter than Drake, you know what makes Drake wanting And he ain't rock him.
He ain't rock him. I will use his legal name, you know, what I mean, you ain't rock him, man a rock.
Him as soon as possible, So happy like the Metropolitan Galivant as.
Soon as possible, rock him with Rihanna Robin Fenti at the Metropolitan Galivant.
All right, moll, we're gonna get to know you a little bit better in a moment. First, we're going to tell our listeners a couple of things we're talking about.
Uh, we'll talk.
About just where we're at, state of the two major parties, the two options that Americans have to vote for. We'll talk about the writers strike, all that plenty more. But first, Molly, we like to ask our guest, what is something from your search history.
I've been looking at like porcupines.
Yeah, like just like for the vibes, Like we're interested in them. So good about porcupines.
They're cool, they're cute, They're like you know what they're like, Drake, They're like hard.
Feelings, harder spine, harder needs, hard.
Soft little nos, soft little cute, squishy nose.
Yeah, that that is kind of a good metaphor.
Yeah, it's like, I really they're like four it on the outside, like don't touch me, I'm spiky. But then they're like, do touch me. I'm a little soft guy.
Do you remember the first time you touched a porcupine?
Quill?
I don't think I've ever touched a porcupine.
That's never happened to me or most people. I would dare say, That's.
What I want now, is to touch one.
Do you remember the first time you hugged a porcupine and just got stabbed all over right with.
Your neck and chin, just shoved it in your windpipe? What happens the.
Time a kangaroo punched you in the face, and like turns out you kind of like.
It, kind of liked it, you kind of into it.
You had a thing for kangaroos for a little bit.
No.
I just remember because it was like one of those I really as a kid, I was really into porcupines, and in my mind like these things would shoot out and could kill you.
If they like well, you know, if you got fucking close to one.
But I just remember seeing like a leopard and shit, you know, like a bunch of quills in its face, and like, uh, like you know, you know, you know, like sometimes you'd have.
Like those people come to your school.
They're like an animal person or whatever. And like just show you like a dead lizard and like some fucking snake skins and be like, oh, I remember this one dude had porcupine quills and I thought it was for whatever you thought, that was the coolest shit that ever happened.
And that's all I have to contribute to this conversation. It is cool.
Yeah, Like those animal people when I was a kid and the like, I just thought they were like kind of weird. And then the more you learn about animals, you're like, oh no, they're right to be Like, why isn't anybody else just fucking mind blown by this?
All the time?
There are real world, fucking Pokemon just wandering our planet at all times. This thing shoots fucking darts off its back, Like what are you talking about?
That?
That's the attitude I'm bringing guys.
Yeah, right, Hey, so you kids like Pokemon? Huh, well, here's a pokey monster right here, this porcupine like that?
No Pokemon, are you, sir?
I'm from Montana.
Was a problematic.
Sorry, I didn't mean to say that to you either, young man with the dreadlog.
I was talking to someone whose name was Monica and I was shortening it.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah, that's my friend's mom. Shout out man, shout out mon.
What is something you think is overrated? Molly?
Wow, you know what's overrated? Movies?
What? Wait? You love a movie? But tell why? What? What? What have you discovered?
Now?
Why where are we at with the movie?
They're too long and big?
Like me, just like musically when you're at a movie theater and the screens there and you're like, what.
Are these people so big of this?
This is more like at home when I need something to watch. I have found that I have like lost the attentionspan required to watch a movie by myself.
Yeah.
I remember like the heyday of like putting on like cable and like whatever was on like HBO. I was like, yeah, watching drop Zone for thee hundredth time from beginning to end. Let's do it, you know, And now like I get fucking anxiety like it to the point like like I'm missing movies because I'm like, fuck, man, I got fucking two hours right now.
That's what I mean. It stresses me out to be like I got to set two hours of my life aside and watch this the whole time.
But then what do you do instead for two hours, because that's that's the iron The irony of what I do is like, oh, then I'm gonna just watch ninety Day Fiance for three hours.
Here's what I did last night. Sometimes I reach an absolute stopping point where I can't deal with narrative anymore. We're just like paying attention to something is makes me angry. I don't want to do it right. And also what I'm trying to wind down at night, it's like, if something's too engaging, I'm gonna watch the whole thing. Yeah right,
I don't want to know what happens. So last night I put on the low Fi girl on YouTube Chill to study two, and I put on the beats to relax and sleep to you, And then I watched a live stream of Times Square.
You did all those those were over it? You had two beats going.
No, No, I just had the beats were open, providing.
Channel the Times Square live stream.
Yeah. Then I put on the Times Square live stream, which I like to do on earth Cam.
Yeah.
They have some live streams of places all over the world. And I just watched the Times Square live stream where there was nobody in Times Square because.
I was going to say, like, what shows up on there because I feel like the only time I see it now in TikTok videos where kids are dancing, but I don't see them on the live stream cameras mostly.
Just like cops loitering around looking for people to harass and like giant slashing advertisements playing to nobody. Yeah, I find it relaxing. It's like relaxingly post apocalyptic.
Little diy Sledge video, Yeah.
TV And sometimes I also watch the explorer dot org cameras of animal cam slavcams. There's like an eagle eagle nest.
What soundtrack do you do with that?
I also do a little bit of those YouTube generic bossa Nova channels.
Have you?
Oh shit?
Do you know what I'm talking about?
I talk about the genre of music all the time called BGM background music.
Yeah, And like on Spotify there are a couple of artists who I just like.
That's how I go to my fucking post apocalyptic dystopia where I feel like I'm like I'm like Desmond in the fucking Hatch and Lost, where I'm like I have fake sunlight and I listen to this one album on a loop to feel like I'm normal. Yeah, that's kind of cafe BGM on Spotify's the BGM.
The background music guys on YouTube too. There's one who just does all this like bossa Nova and jazz that's like not copyrighted. It's just like and it's like a little JANKI. It's like sometimes he's a little off eat or something even, And I find it so relaxing, Like I don't think it's insulting to music to say, like, sometimes you need music that you just are about.
Yeah, it's it's wallpaper.
It's wallpapers, ambient.
Yeah.
I only like music that I have to sit in a dark room and stare at the computer screen as it's playing, just to have my full focus.
Makes me think about math. That's only the music I like.
You know, a doll a jack Dala Jackie.
What is what something you think is underrated?
Yess what, guys, I just started watching TikTok.
Oh.
No, this is the.
Same, the same reason I can't pay attention to movies anymore.
So you got pulled in.
Yeah, I've been fighting it because I know I can't handle it.
It's so powerful, right, right, What's what's like a weird TikTok, Like some weird ship that you've been getting served that you're like, fuck man, I honestly.
I don't even have it yet. I just have someone else that I make show me tiktoks.
Whoa like or.
Like someone who quits smoking, but just like around y'all smoking cigarettes, just.
Like social drug doing, like I only do it. I don't buy it.
Yeah, Like if someone else has TikTok, then like I'll do it with them, like I'll not get it, Like I'm not gonna be doing TikTok at home by myself.
Yeah, I don't like do my own TikTok, but I understand now. It's like so addictive you can't stop watching them. They're so funny. Everything is funny. Yeah, just like the way they it really did make me be like movies can't compete.
With how much I love this Yeah, like I love this fifteen second bit that's from hack stand up, But people are just acting out.
Like movies have to be as good as a fifteen second video that ends with like a train whistle for no reason.
Right, and then like a clip of like out of context future, like they wrapping me like.
It's a cold world, Like what the fuck?
Okay, maybe somebody doing like a speed Run of Zelda underneath.
The whole fir sluods, yeah, get it in.
It feels like the future movies are the past.
There's one that I laughed so hard at this weekend. It was like this. It was a clip.
It says like when my wife and I are arguing but I'm trying to cuddle, and it's like a couple in bed and the dude gets in bed and he's trying to spoon his wife from the back, and she starts like scooting over because he's mad, and he like scoots after her. And then they continue that to like they're scooting off the bed, they're scooting down the hall, they're scooting off the house, they're scooting on the fucking streets, like just on their sides.
Keep doing. I'm like, yes, keep going, keep going, And I'm like, this is fucking whatever. I like, I don't know why I'm getting so much joy from it.
All right, let's take a quick break.
We'll come back and we'll talk about, uh, the Democratic and Republican parties.
And we're back.
We're back.
We're talking about another election.
This is number closer closer and closer to their second presidential election.
For this podcast, I don't even think about that.
This is a a doozy, this one. I don't know.
This one feels more like a lot more boring, just because it's the same shit over and over.
Oh yeah again. And I think they don't want you to know that.
Right well, I think right now both parties are seemingly united in their rigidity, uh, even if it means losing the election at that, like just lack of like changing anything Republicans like just that. I just want to touch on this thing that Roni McDaniel, the head of the rn C H, talked about over the weekend on Fox. Like we've talked about this. Republicans have seen loss after loss since the overturning of Row, yet they can't get
fucking past it, and they're just doubling down. And the same with guns, like a majority of Americans, like it's clear majority of Americans.
Like, we want fucking assault weapons fucking banned at a minimum.
What the fuck are you doing? And Republicans can barely muster the strength that even utter the word gun. But Roni McDaniel, she's out here on Fox on Sunday and really made this lack of awareness, situational awareness clear On her appearance, she was able to like describe the situation the Republicans were in, which is like, you know, we're losing independence, man, we got to get the independence back. I don't know what the heck's going on, We're losing independence.
And also like red state people are moving to red states and blue states are getting blue or and just electorally like we the only way we can win is getting like independence and like blue and purple states, where it's like, okay, yeah, that makes sense. So you've articulated the situation, Now how are you going to address that? And the host is even asking Ron McDaniel, like you're
taking l's on abortions. But it sounds like whenever people are asking like Republican candidates about abortion, they don't know what to say, like they don't even know where they're at, and it's just really like awkward and doesn't make sense.
What do you have to say about that?
This is her response as to how the Republicans are going to get around that.
Let's see where the Democrats are what abortion is a bad idea to a Democrat? Nine months, eight months, seventh month. They can't even articulate an abortion. That's a bad idea gender selection. If it's a girl, you get to abort it, taxpayer funded abortions for people where it's against their religious conscience. That's where Joe Biden was years ago.
So the question is we just got to say we're pro life and then immediately just pivots to Democrats want to kill babies like after they're born, or like kill women babies. They will control all delete your fetus because
that's what they do right now. And it's like, okay, hold on, that doesn't explain the like the situation that y'all are in a policy wise, But the whole interview started off with the host talking about there's like this twenty twenty two midterms post mortem report that the RNC did to be like, what.
The fuck happened in the mid terms? Just now?
It can't be our fucking just arcane philosophies. And the host rightfully pointed out that a lot of Republicans who saw their support just couldn't understand how this analysis had no mention of Trump. They're like, there's not even a mention of that as to what that means for the party, and like Ron Daniel's like, uh, it's not the final thing, So maybe it'll be in there.
Spoiler alert, I doubt it will be.
So that's just kind of like interesting thing where they're even as they try and look forward, they're completely handcuffed. Like even their analysis, they have to avoid the reality of what Donald Trump does to like down ballot candidates, even when he endorses them, like they were losing right, So to pivot to the Democrats, I mean, at least other Republicans are like jumping into the primary because Democrats not so much.
At the moment, they are looking all set to do this thing.
The thing we've seen pretty much every election I can remember, you talk slightly to the left, promise shit for working people, then whoops, I don't know how we couldn't deliver on all that stuff, and hey have you heard of Republicans eh, which is basically the policy every time. And Joe Biden has less support than Trump did this At this point in his administration, only thirty eight percent of Democrats are
even into the idea of him running again. And that's mostly because twenty twenty was people just holding their noses to get Trump out, and so the utter lack of enthusiasm for Democrats, it's just wold to see them be like, nah, we're going all in on this stale potato chip of a man. That's what we got, and I hope you guys like it. And they're also.
Doing something like they've settled on dehydration as the method of preservation of him, and he is just like a piece of Joe Biden jerky.
Yeah, yeah, Joe Jerky's. Hey, don't give Trump any ideas that's a good, wide and sleepy Joe Biden jerky skin Biden jerky boy bite.
Anyway.
But the DNC, though, they're also doing a lot to protect him, like they're like, you know, to scare off any primary challengers. They moved the first primary to South Carolina, like for the last fifty some years it was always in Iowa, which had many people being like, yo, what the Fuck's the reason for that. The party's explanation was like, well, you know, Iowa was ninety percent white, and it is not as well suited as like the first place for a prime or for a tecaucus because it's not as
diverse as a place like South Carolina. You know, then I think that that's what we're trying to do. Plus, sure, they do have the thing where like the twenty twenty Iowa caucuses were a shit show with all those weird like software issues. But a lot of other people are pointing out that South Carolina is just a state that is much more favorable to Joe Biden.
Yeah, it's the one that swung the entire election for South Carolina. Everyone was like, this guy's not gonna do anything. And then after it was like over the media, it was like, well, it's Biden's.
To lose and we're done here folks.
A lot of people are like, oh, so you're doing that so you can set the tone and crush any early primary hopefuls like out the gate. So you hear that RFK Junior and the ORB lady, that's what you're up against right now.
So like, yeah, he's there, the Democrat ANTIAX Democrat, but he's not really talking about that part that much.
He's going to get all the Malibus out.
Oh yeah, speaking of Malibu or your sure just evook that. But like the thing is like you look at all the things that like Biden is done. It's like what happened to the pandemic aid or like tax cuts and like why did you crush that railroad?
Strike like these are legitimate questions.
Voters who are like actually engaged are gonna be asked and obviously drive enthusiasm down. But luckily for Democrats, the Republicans have just as little appetite for anything substantive or transformational unless it's to transform the country into like a fucking ethno state. So like, Republicans can't back away from their hateful shit, so their strategy is pray for a fucking disaster that changes the conversation away from our abortion
and gun policies and everything. And the Democrats they can't back away from upholding the status quo, and they're like, you know, they don't want addressings like cost of living, so they're doing the same thing we've seen, which is, hey, just have the GOP stay the same and we can just lightly gesture in that direction and be like you.
Want that, and yeah, here we go.
Yeah, and we're bad too, but we don't use racial slurs in public. We just went in our policies.
We just.
We know the thing that like you see in sports a lot where after a game, people will assume that the opponent is going to do the exact same thing again and they're like, well, this one's over. We just have Joe Biden going against Trump again, so the exact.
Same thing will happen.
I have a sports take, Yes, I have a sports take. I want to come on Boosties for my like two sports takes. I'm here for playoff basketball only, and I come from the perspective of someone who's never watches basketball and.
It's just going off the dome.
But I just learned about who Giannis.
Is OBUs Yeah, and I.
Watched that game and then he made that statement afterwards where.
He was like about failure failure.
That was like so interesting to me because he's Greek, right, So his statement was like, yeah, you know, like lots of people are the greatest players and they don't win every single game, so like does that make them a failure? Like is Michael Jordan a failure? Because he didn't like if he doesn't win a game, is he not still
the greatest player of all time? He said this thing that was like so measured and rational, right about winning and losing and like being the greatest, you know, doing the thing you care about the most and being incredible at it, and like if you lose one time, does that mean you're now a failure, like right, and then philosophical people are so mad because that's not the American way. I was like, nobody in America is gonna accept this because it's like too it's.
Too like it's too rational, it's too rational. And how does this factor into the Democrats and Republicans.
Again, because it's like it does it.
At all.
Because we went from this thing and then you're like giannish, yeah, I'm there for that.
It is the kind of thing. It's it sounds a loopy conversation. I think it's just like when you hear someone say something rational, it makes you realize how brainwormed everybody is in America about everything, you know, because like the thing that would make sense to do would be to be like, yeah, we're going to lower the cost of living, We're going to fix inflation, right right, We're gonna offer you something that's gonna make you want to
vote for us. Besides just we're not going to take away abortion, like these are your only choices or like status quo or status quo.
Minus right, right, right, yes.
I think I was just like hearing somebody European like say something normal about like yeah, there should be like the way when you hear a European person be like, yeah, we have a social floor, like you can go to the doctor, doesn't cost anything.
Things that are like normal, Like well, because you're broke, Like a system set up for losers.
Sounds like a system for losers. I think, just like the losers and winners thing. It's like, obviously that's how Trump won was he was like, I'm a winner. They're fucking losers. Get with the winning team. And it just feels like that's what Biden's doing a little bit now. It's just like what else you got, Like we're the winners. You have no choice.
Might even going to like the FDR's playbook and be like, yo, man, just give them something, bro, you can be out.
Give them something, And he's like, I'm not doing all that.
It's also like you would think in a world where anything made sense, you would think they would see the rise of like leftism and the fact that everybody who's gotten fucked by like post Reagan asceticism is mad and wants things, wants healthcare can't afford shit, even like people who might agree with the Republicans would love it. Actually if groceries cost less, Yeah, yeah, Like why wouldn't you appeal to the one thing that the Democrats are supposedly good at.
It just shows how absolutely out of like, you know, just all the powers concentrated at the top. Yeah, Like and a bunch of people who have like the poorest person they've seen is just whoever they see out of their windows.
The Republicans and the Democrats have class solidarity for rich people, so it's like they are both committed to just like arm wrestling to the death on a rocket ship that's on fire, Like nobody's even trying to like put out the fire on.
The no no no, no, no no no, or like who's gonna win the monkey knife fight.
I think the problem is, like Democrats aren't good at the one thing they're supposedly good at anymore. Like they can't give us anything because corporations have all the power in their case, like Republicans.
But that's like a choice they may.
Yeah for sure, but like the way the current system is set up, they have made a hard choice to like not do anything that's going.
To change, right. It's just like the way in which like a rational person would see the success of like the Bernie stuff and be like, we need to absorb whatever the lowest stakes part of this we can possibly offer people.
It's weird because like corporations are really good at co opting that kind of shit. Yeah, and be like, hey watch this, We'll take your ship and bring it into ours.
And now you don't even know the fucking difference.
But it just like makes you feel insane.
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm like, where's the where's the savvy? But hey, whatever, this is this is.
Where you should have off work for Earth Day.
So you know about the writers strike?
Is that on the that's up next?
Yeah, up next, genius. All right, let's take a quick break. We'll come back and talk about the writer's strike. And we're back, and the WGA strike is official. Writers are set to picket yesterday, so I think.
They did pick it and they did.
Yeah, you had to sign up. Make sure you just lie.
The unions have said that the production companies have created a gig economy inside a union workforce. When you see the details of like what is happening, what used to be paid to writers and like what is on offer now, it's just I guess the most pressing issues compensation. The number of scripted shows have skyrocketed but writers pay has completely stagnated. They started doing this thing, the mini writers room, where they just like have fewer people working on a
show so they can pay fewer people. They like have them working for less time. You as the consumer, even if you're not a member of the WGA, you were going to see this in like the lower quality of
the content that's being produced. But it's yeah, and so like when you look at the details of the negotiation, the units like so we want to like have at least a basement on like the number of writers and the number of time, like the amount of time that constitutes a writer's room, and the corporate you know, powers that be came back with like, how about we don't even respond to that because about fuck you.
Yeah, it's kind of the response, and it is. It's kind of just the way things are shifting. It's they're just slashing and burning, like the old ways of doing things, which rendered good content. But now yeah, but we're also putting writers under pressure to be like, Okay, you have three days to do this whole thing.
Yeah. This has just been like the story of our lives. They got rid of everything that made having a job a thing you wanted to do. So they've made everybody an independent contractor even at jobs where you once would have had, like a salary job I've had, And it happened first in journalism and now it's happening in Hollywood. But basically it's just like the tech companyization of everything. It's like when tech companies come in and take everything over.
What they mean by like move fast and break things is like fucking break labor.
Laws, breaking spirits they're using, like in this case, they used the switch from like cable television to streaming as like the excuse to completely like rewire everything, like re where the contract and it's like such an arbitrary difference is just like what people watch it on.
My logical brain. When I was like a young writer starting out, like as magazines and other ecosystems were like collapsing, and I thought foolishly like, okay, well it'll go to the Internet and at some point they'll start compensating people
fairly on the Internet. But the whole time it's just been like no Internet, other thing that's less valuable, so we pay you less, right, And like raates just haven't gone up for writers across the board in like twenty years, which is like insane, but it reflects other trends in the country of just like rates aren't going up, jobs don't have the things that once made it for any reason, like useful to have a steady job. You know.
It's like, yeah, yeah, how about less perks, less benefits, more work.
Right, Well, it's like they offer it is like you get to make choices. It's like this thing. I feel like it was also like marketed to us as like you get to like you get to have five jobs,
you get to let write works. Right, You're not tied down to this one job for twenty years, so you get to work seventy jobs all the time forever, with no promise of like any kind of contract pickup, you know, especially something like writing where you can make people feel like they're lucky to be doing it at all for money,
because it's any kind of creative pursuit. This is on My next podcast is about about the most worker protections and content making and all that stuff in the most important American media industry.
Yeah, which is which is pornography.
Yes, I'm sure, I'm sure that was assumed by our listeners.
Yeah, they know.
Well, it's just interesting because I've been working on it, and it is really about workers' rights and content merchant try and art making for money, right, and the way in which it went from being a thing where you could have a study job to being a thing where you are like a mercenary. Yeah, and how how even mercenaries deserve protections especially you know, thank you.
Yeah.
Eric Prince was just talking about that recently on Sebastian Gorka's podcast. I like one of the other things too, right, because we talk about technology and things, is like the WGA, the Writers Guild, they're also very concerned about AI.
But that stuff is crazy because that to me feels like shows you how dumb they are that they're like, we can replace you with robots, like because all the AI stuff, it's like never up to the level that it's being advertised as.
It's like a friend of mine had like who has chat GPT they were showing me.
I was like, They're like, dude, I got it to pitch, like I've movie.
Ideas based on this candy or whatever, like, and it's like they're like and we put the prompt in and it's funny how it just it gives you, like the most like they're serviceable ideas, but they're clearly just aggregated from other ideas elsewhere, and you're like, no, this is actually original. Like one thing was just like The Avengers, but like but they skinned it over with like these candy things, and another one was like basically Tommy Boy but with like candy.
Maybe that's like the problem is writers are like, yeah, but like AI's going to give you like shitty content, and they're like, yeah, that's what we want. We don't care if it's fucking good. We want a robot to write the Avengers. That's obviously where this has been going all along.
Yeah, and Ultron wins in this one.
And there's something about just like deplatforming writers as a group that is obviously fascist, you know.
Yeah.
The thing that's kind of spooky, right is like in the negotiations the WJ is like in regards to AI, they're like, we can't have it be normalized that you can use AI to be credited with any writing. And all we're asking is that you don't do that or you're doing some chat GPT script shit and then having a like a human writer punch it up after.
Like the Lord's so scary. The idea of like a robot punching up scripts honestly does like frighten me to my very core in a way that like, I never I've never thought about it until now, you know.
Right, yeah, and I like how like so the response of like the theater or the studios and stuff to like the AI question is we will have annual meetings to discuss advancements in technology.
We're not gonna say yes to anything. You said, what.
PROMI right, yeah, The whole thing is we make no promises. The whole thing.
I mean, this is like you said, this is what's happening across all capitalist systems, especially in the United States. Things are being rewired, like everything is. It's just more and more being normalized, where now they don't even have to like engage with the requests. They're just like like, well, in response to your concerns that AI will write scripts that you then get like twenty dollars to punch up, we will have meetings to discuss that with you.
It's also like the bigger the name of the corporation, the more they will tell you to go fuck yourself, you know. And so, like I know people who were working for Disney on like a show that was some of the issues that led to this, I feel like, and some of it is like they're having people write things on spec Essentially, it's like they don't have to greenlight the show until after they've written an entire season of it.
Truly, the hoops that our people are jumping through is.
It just makes no sense. It's like if you cared at all about the efficiency, Like obviously Hollywood is like not an efficiently run system.
One of the details that I've read in like how Studios Fucked people over is there was a show, like a successful network show that had a like bump built into the writer's contracts from like going from the first twenty six episode season to the second twenty six episode season, and so to avoid doing that, the studio just changed the length of the season in the contract to fifty two episodes.
It just had them.
Work on a longer season one just most bad faith, no shitty.
Kinds, the kinds of workarounds they do, yeah for these things. And I've been in situations where I had what felt like it should be a very like tenyured media job and would once have been like a tenured media job, and the kind of thing you could like depend on for a few years at least, and instead they gave it to like three of us and made us all independent contractors and gave us just no guarantees that we
would ever be working. It was just like no problem, you know, no promises of how much work this is when there's a column you'll know.
Gig work, but gigs that makes it so funny, like you're doing a fun concert or.
Something, and then you can go to your rent fare and smoke weed, you know.
And you smoke weed. I think. Also it's like like these things are intertwined. Also what my next podcast is about. But it's like often when the bottom falls out of an industry or the profit making is like not what it once was, that's when they let people of color and women in, you know, because they're like, oh well, nobody fucking cares now, Like this isn't it isn't like writing on cheers where you would buy how you know,
a house why from it? It's like it's gigwork. So it's like as it becomes more diverse and like traditional gatekeeping is changing, it's like it also does feel like they're they're trying to crush that too. But it's also like when people are like, oh, once I would have the problem with all these executives is they just wanted to be the past.
You know.
It's like they're not interested in dealing with what's happening now because this was These are also the same issues as the two thousand and eight strike, which was bad things were going to the internet. People weren't being compensated fairly for work on the internet. They weren't getting residuals. They were using it as an excuse to like pay people less, and it just never got fixed. Even in the first strike, it never really got fixed. They just
did a million reality shows. That was when they did a big push on reality because reality had no labor protections. No, like really does it? Reality is like the most exploitative.
Yeah, And like we were saying on the Trending episode the other day, is like from the studio standpoint, like with the amount of downsizing and shit that they've had to do in scaling back, like a strike is actually not bad for them because they're like, well that's less money.
They're like we're going to suck everybody. We're just get of all these people and bring in scabs, And I truly think what's gonna happen is they're going to make a bunch of it. They're gonna sign a million like fucking TikTok stars is what I think will happen. I think they're gonna be like fuck this, We're just gonna yeah, like yeah, because they don't respect writers. They don't respect writing.
That's what's crazy about show business is the people who are in charge like don't respect art and don't care about art. Yeah, somebody said, like quibi it is very like quibbi vibes. It's like a bunch of people saying something that like any sane person is like, yeah, you can't do this shit without writers, and they're like, oh watch.
Us, yeah, wait until they come back.
And HBO Max is like guess what Succession is coming back for a fifth season and it's being helmed by Charlie d'millio and Logan Paul.
That's what I mean. It's like I think they're intent to like strip all these brands for parts because.
That's just like yeah, I think yeah, And that is.
Ultimately like like it's TV writers or like a metaphor for everybody else where. It's just like this is a very once lucrative, prestigious job, and it is not what it used to be.
Yeah, I mean I think that's that's the thing that's become very fortuitous for like these greedy studios is like when you're dealing with people that are like already driven by a passion for something, they're probably more likely to want to go along with whatever you're offering because for them they're passionate about and like, yeah, man, they're fucking we'll do it because where else are you gonna write on tv etce.
True, but it's like the same thing is probably true for like Amazon warehouses, where people are so desperate they have to say yes to anything. It's like, for sure, it's all about just like making people desperate. It's just different levels of making people desperate so that they have to say yes to whatever because they truly just like are scraping by. And I think also this is where
democrats are really fucking failing right now. I do think it's like during the pandemic, they did the thing they never had done before where they just like gave us all money to be freelancers, and it like improved everybody's quality of life so much. Everybody I know is like that everything was bad, but remember how great it was to not be fucking stressed out about paying rent every month.
Because like the government acknowledges you might need a little help, they should offer to help people, even if it's in bad faith. Then they're not going to do it. The fact that they're not even trying is so depressing.
Man, Come on.
About the w g A two. They're like, look, we really want to negotiate with it, just like I've been in a lot of situations like this at this point where it's like, yeah, you're like, why would they treat me like a person? And I think that's the thing about capitalism too, is it's like, no matter how valuable you become in capitalism, even if you become like a super high paid showrunner or whatever, you're still a fucking commodity to them, and that means they can throw you away.
Certainly in this version of capitalism, this hypercapitalism that's just all about creating value for shareholders and does not give a fuck about the people who are actually creating the value that then gets transferred into monetary value for shareholders.
Corporations are people and people are corporations.
Man oh I mean, I am working on my branding.
Well, I think it's like you have do you have to be.
A mercenary and it's for better and worse.
Yeah.
Yeah, Well we've all had to commodify ourselves in some way.
And that's good. It's efficient, and that's what we want to leave you with.
But look, just because you don't win every time, does that make you a failure?
Yes?
Molly, such a pleasure having you. Where can people find you? Follow you all that good stuff?
You can find me. I've been off Twitter. I think I'm off Twitter for good. But you can find me on Instagram at Molly on scir Lambert and you can find me pretty soon back on iHeartRadio with a new podcast about the pornography industry. Details coming soon. And uh yeah, thanks for having me.
Thanks for being here. Is there a work of media that you've been enjoying.
Yeah, I probably said this last time. I'm just watching Taxi on Pluto still Pluto TV. Oh.
I caught your stories and I was like, you know what, Molly's posting this, He's watched in Taxi. I'm like, you're staying consistent with it.
It's really it's just it lulls me into the right zone. And then when I turn it on again in the morning, it's playing like lethal Weapon too. It makes me feel like I left the TV on all.
Right, amazing miles. Where can people find you? Is there a work of media you've been enjoying? Oh?
Man, you can find me at Mile of Gray, where there's at symbols, find Jack and I on our basketball podcast sees uh, and then also find me on four twenty Day Fiance with Sofia Alexandra. Just don't worry about me. Just go outside, you know what I mean. I'm uh, that's that's my that's my tip for everybody today. I have not looked enough at social media to offer something. This is kind of becoming a trend, unfortunately or fortunately for you.
Yeah, yeah, that's what I mean. Fortunately. Fortunately.
Let's see, I've just really been enjoying the tweets about James Harden's pants that he wore to Game one against Boston.
Christy Amaguchi, Man, I don't know.
Did anybody see these? They were the biggest pants that I've ever seen.
Biggest pants that you've seen thus far, We've seen thus far.
Christi Amaguchiman said, James Harden's about to crush every newcomer that steps to him and dance dance Revolution at the mall arcade, which that is kind of the look he was going for. And Jason, when you got an idea that I think he needs to do, He's ad each game a bigger pair of pants, keeps until he.
Got that chip, exactly like when people got to play off Beard and Ship. Yeah, just like bigger.
Just can't be like crawling on his hands because he's just someone.
Yeah, puts him on like a Pallette Jack, just like walking him in on it.
I need that.
I need those mech gala like long ass train pants. There you go from James Carden anyways. You can find me on Twitter at Jack underscorel Brian.
You can find us on.
Twitter at Daily Zeitgeist. We're at the Daily Geist on Instagram. We have a Facebook fan page and a website, Daily zeitgeist dot com, where we post our episode and our footnote off to the information that we talked about in today's episode, as well as a song that we think you might enjoy. Weles, what's the song we think people might enjoy?
I think you're gonna enjoy.
Okay, I was listening back in the day when I was really into dubstep, there was like this one Noisia, like this artist Noisia who I was really into, and I hadn't heard any work from this artist in a while.
Then I just kind of started.
Looking around and apparently had a new album come out last year, and I listened to it, and it's just interesting to hear like what dubstep producers are kind of going into now rather than just like Shack's favorite genre, it's becoming Yeah, we're.
Doing a lot more like two step, drumming bass and things like that too.
But this track is from Noisa with scrillicks. Okay, they're getting together. It's called Supersonic, okay, And this is just like, I don't know, it's definitely headphone music. And if you're not into electronic music, you might you might not be digging this, but if you are, this ship will It'll blow your hair off. So anyway, check this out. It's called Supersonica, all right.
Well.
The Daily Zeke as a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from My Heart.
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